CNN news 2012-11-19 加文本

cnn news 2012-11-19

Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the podcast. The latest in the conflict in Israel in Gaza. Let's get started.

We begin with breaking news, Israeli troops on the move right now, the Israeli army moving 1,500 to 2,000 troops to the border with Gaza. Many fear a ground offensive, if Israel chooses to launch one, could be the spark that engulfs the region in conflict.

Now, inside Gaza, scenes like this playing out right now, a constant bombardment. The Israeli military says at least 300 rockets from Gaza have been fired into Israel since yesterday. Israel says at least three people have died. Israel firing back with its own missile launches and airstrikes. This is what happens on the ground in Gaza, huge mushroom clouds of destruction, buildings left in ruins. Israel says it targeted more than 300 terror sites. That's what they call them in Gaza.

When the bombs fall, neighborhoods go up in flames, bodies on the streets. Health ministry officials say at least 18 Palestinians have been killed.

cnn's Sara Sidner is in Gaza City, witnessing the violence, the rockets and gunfire reining down. Here's what she told Wolf Blitzer this afternoon. Watch.

OK. That is exactly, all right. I'm going to move out of the way. I'm going to let you get a look here. I'm going to let you get a look at what is going on. Now, I can see the black smoke. It's difficult to capture on camera. But you saw that flash. This is what we have been dealing with all day. We have also been dealing with, I'm sorry, the power has just gone out. We have been dealing with power outages, Wolf. But this feels like war. It may not have been declared, but it feels like war to the civilians who live here.

Sara Sidner joins us now live from Gaza. Sara, what are you seeing? We just saw there were airstrikes earlier in the day behind you. What's going on now?

The same thing. Throughout the entire night, we have been hearing some teeth-rattling blasts over Gaza. We do know there have been at least a dozen blasts over the past few hours. Very, very, very loud, strong blasts here. It's very dark. I'm going to kind of move out of the way just to give you a look. It's dark here and power is out in much of the city. Those who have generators, you will see a few lights just there behind me, but it has been a very, very difficult night for the civilians living here, certainly, difficult also, to be very fair, for the civilians living in Southern Israel. We were there this morning. We were there for quite awhile and we ourselves in just about an hour-and-a-half time saw at least 13 rockets come over from Gaza into Israel. Now we know that number is somewhere around 300 since this latest fight, this latest battle between Gaza and Israel began. It has been a very difficult night for people here and you can really tell, because when you go into the streets, this is one of the densely populated cities of the world, perhaps the most densely populated city, and if you look in the streets that are usually bustling, filled with people, filled with cars, there are hardly any cars. There have been almost no people and all the shops closed. So a very, very tense place here in Gaza and in Southern Israel as well.

Yeah, Sara, stay with us. I want to bring in Fred Pleitgen. He's in Southern Israel. Also there is Noga Tarnopolsky, a senior correspondent for Global Post. And Fouad Ajami is with me here, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Fred, I know you're hearing jets right now. What's the latest where you are?

You're absolutely right, Anderson. There were jets from the Israeli military just passing overhead literally a couple minutes ago. It looks as though Gaza might be in for a few more airstrikes. What's happened here on the ground in Ashkelon, we are only about eight miles away from the border with Gaza, they have had at least 20 rockets come over from Gaza here into Ashkelon. What they have in place here though, Anderson, is a missile defense system called the Iron Dome. And across Southern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces say that missile defense system has intercepted as many as 130 rockets coming out of Gaza. But, of course, it can't intercept all of them. That's the reason the Israelis say why they keep sending those warplanes over there to try and suppress especially the medium-and-long-range rockets coming out of Gaza, cus one of the things that also happened today is that the outskirts of Tel Aviv were actually hit by a rocket as well. No one was injured in that. However, it is very, very concerning to the Israelis if their main city, if the biggest city here in this country can in fact be targeted and the message that we're getting from the Israeli Defense Forces and from the Israeli government is that they're both capable and very much willing to keep on widening that operation. In a short term, that will probably mean more airstrikes, a lot more airstrikes and in the longer term, or in the medium term, it could in fact mean a ground offensive. We're also, Anderson, seeing a lot of movement on the ground here, tanks and other vehicles being brought into place, Anderson.